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StrikoWestofen: Light metal casting industry trusts in innovations

StrikoWestofen benefits from high demand for energy and material efficient technologies

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With a 13 percent increase in sales compared to the previous year, the StrikoWestofen Group reports a successful business year 2012. Thus, the well-known manufacturer of thermal process engineering for the light metal casting industry achieved a total sales of 47.3 million Euros in 2012 (previous year: 41.8 million Euros). In addition, StrikoWestofen had about 21 percent more incoming orders compared to the previous year. Thanks in large part to its energy- and material-efficient products, the company reports figures considerably higher than the general trend in the machinery and plant engineering sector. For the business year 2013 we also expect to keep up the positive development of the last two years and increase our sales even further, says CEO Rudolf Riedel optimistically.

A globally reduced economic growth, a financial crisis in the Euro area and a difficult market environment for automotive suppliers: Against this background, StrikoWestofen was able to stand its ground in the business year 2012. The company increased its sales by about 13 percent to 47.3 million Euros in 2012. At the same time, about 21 percent more orders were placed than in the previous year. Reliable energy-saving technologies are in great demand worldwide. Our systems reduce the energy consumption in their field of application by up to 50 percent in an extremely energy-intensive sector, explains Rudolf Riedel, CEO of StrikoWestofen. The high process reliability, extremely short payback periods on investments in our technologies and the anticipated competitive advantages were important drivers of our sales success in the previous business year. The major part of the melting and dosing furnaces is manufactured at the Polish production site (Strzelce Opolskie). The improvement of the sales situation was accompanied by an increase in the production capacity in Poland, making it necessary to build another production hall. In addition, local production sites are situated in Taicang (China) and Zeeland (USA).

Further expansion of international presence

StrikoWestofen has locations and service partners in the important foundry centers of the world. Thanks to this worldwide network, the group is in a position to develop solutions tailored to suit the requirements of the local markets. This is also shown by the sales figures: in the USA, the StrikoWestofen subsidiary StrikoDynarad (Zeeland) was able to increase sales by almost 60 percent against the background of an economic growth of 2.2 percent. In China the demand for the products from Gummersbach increased as well. In light of a reduced growth in the Chinese automotive sector, StrikoWestofen registered 60 percent more incoming orders than it did in the previous year. We are considerably dependent on the investment activities of the automotive industry. The growth we aim in Asian and the American markets is an important factor which will allow us to reduce our dependency on the economic situation in Europe. Considering the market circumstances, we expect sales figures to be increased again in 2013.

Customer-oriented product management as the key to success

Standing still means going backwards: this is why, even after supplying its technologies, StrikoWestofen remains in close contact with its customers. Personal talks and specific needs of everyday foundry operation give the engineers important suggestions for improvements. In close cooperation with the customers, new ideas are developed for further improving the quality of the melt and the dosing precision or for lowering the energy consumption and metal loss. In addition, the operated systems are important references. In field tests, StrikoWestofen is able to validate the intended consumption results under real-life foundry conditions and it is able to make reliable statements on the efficiency of the products.


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